Tagged: the economist

The fourth member of the Oceanic 6 is revealed when Sayid strikes a bargain with Frank to visit the freighter, but to accomplish this, he’ll need to reach out to a distrustful Locke.

Written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Directed by Jack Bender

Flashforward

In the off-island future, Sayid was revealed to be the fourth member of the Oceanic 6 (after Jack, Kate, and Hurley). Sayid’s life had changed radically by the time we caught up with him, several years in the future, where he was working as an assassin, taking out people whose names were on a list given to him by his employer. After he killed a man named Mr. Avellino on a golf course in the islands of Seychelles, he traveled to Berlin, where he met a woman named Elsa and struck up a romantic relationship with her, even developing real feelings for her. But their pairing was not as random as it appeared, on either of their parts. They were both playing each other, hoping that the other would lead them to the men they worked for. In Sayid’s case, that man was none other than Benjamin Linus, who was also off the island in the future, just like the Oceanic 6. Elsa’s boss was never revealed, but Elsa herself lost her life after she revealed her subterfuge and attacked Sayid, nearly killing him. Sayid was later patched up by Ben, who he informed that their enemy would be looking for them now. Ben shot back that he was glad for that, but that Sayid shouldn’t have fallen in love with Elsa, which was a mistake he’d made once before. Sayid bitterly pointed out that Ben used that incident to recruit Sayid into killing for him.

Now

At the site where Frank landed the helicopter, Miles argues with Jack about both Ben, who he was sent to find, and Charlotte, who Locke’s group has taken captive. Sayid steps forward and asks Frank to fly him off the island to the freighter, so he can verify that it’s real and can carry the survivors to rescue. But Miles won’t hear of it until Charlotte has been released, so Sayid proposes that he can get her back without needing to resort to violence. It’s a trade: Charlotte’s safe rescue for Sayid’s passage to the freighter.

Sayid finds Naomi’s photo of Desmond in her belongings, and suggests that the Freighter Folk aren’t being entirely truthful about their intentions — namely, that they’re solely here to find Ben. Jack asks Juliet to hike back to the beach and ask Desmond what he knows about Naomi, hoping that Des might be able to shed some light on their visitors. Meanwhile, Sayid takes charge over the mission of retrieving Charlotte, and Miles says he’s coming along. But Jack secretly asks Kate to accompany them as well, because he believes Locke can’t be trusted.

In the jungle, Locke leads his group back to the place where Jacob’s cabin once stood, but finds that it’s no longer there — though the ring of ash surrounding the site remains intact. Hurley and some of the others want to release Charlotte before they reach the Barracks, but Locke refuses, stating unequivocally that he’s in charge.

While they wait at the helicopter, Jack and Frank watch Daniel conduct a strange scientific experiment involving some kind of miniature rocket. He calls the freighter and asks Regina to “fire the payload,” after deploying a beacon to guide it to his location. But there’s a problem: Regina reports that the payload has reached the beacon, but nothing has arrived on the island. Thirty-one minutes later, the tiny rocket finally arrives, and Daniel is distraught over the odd time discrepancy. Juliet arrives just then with Desmond in tow, and Desmond grills Frank on why Naomi had a picture of him and Penny. When Frank and Miles both are less than forthcoming, refusing to acknowledge that they’ve never heard of Penelope Widmore, Desmond declares that he’s going with Sayid to the freighter when the helicopter takes off, so he can find someone there to give him his answers.

Sayid, Kate, and Miles arrive at the Barracks and go looking for Locke, but all they find is Hurley, alone, locked in a closet in one of the houses, claiming that the others went somewhere else and left him behind. He reports that they “said something about stopping by Ben’s house” before they took off, so they go to inspect it. Sayid finds a secret door that leads to a hidden room — a room containing dozens of changes of clothes, suitcases, international currency, passports, and other supplies one might need when regularly traveling around the world. While he and Kate continue to inspect the house, Locke, Danielle, and Sawyer suddenly appear. They’ve been trapped, and Hurley was in on it all along.

Sayid is escorted to the Others’ rec room, where he is locked up along with Ben. Locke visits him there, and Sayid asks that Charlotte be turned over to him. He explains that he’ll be allowed to visit the freighter if he can deliver Charlotte back to her friends, but Locke, predictably, has little interest in this.

Kate is kept in Ben’s house by Sawyer, who questions her desire to leave the island with Jack. He explains that he’s decided not to leave, because he has nothing to go back to. He asks her to stay with him.

Sayid returns to the helicopter with Charlotte, but no Kate or Miles. Kate decided to stay behind, he explains, and Miles was traded to Locke in exchange for Charlotte. Frank is less than pleased with Sayid’s “cheating,” but agrees to honor their bargain. Before he takes off, Daniel warns him to follow the exact bearing they arrived on to get off the island, no matter what. Since there’s room for one more passenger and no one else is interested in going just now, Sayid suggests they take Naomi’s body back to the freighter. So Frank, Desmond, Sayid, and their cargo take off in the chopper and watch the island go by as they head out to sea.

Why did Naomi have a picture of Desmond if she wasn’t there to rescue him?

What’s the significance of the time difference of thirty-one minutes between the island and (presumably) the rest of the world?

What was Ben doing with international travel supplies? How often has he come and gone from the island in the past, and what business was he conducting off the island?

How did Sayid end up working as an assassin in the future?

How did Sayid end up working for Ben in the future?

How did Ben get off the island? Did he escape on the freighter along with the Oceanic 6?

Did anyone else get off the island besides the Oceanic 6?

Who is the Economist that Elsa worked for?

What was the incident that Ben used to recruit Sayid into killing for him?

Why does Ben have a list of people he’s having Sayid kill in the off-island future?

How will killing the people on Ben’s list protect Sayid’s friends (presumably meaning the rest of the Oceanic 6)?

﻿There’s only one word to describe Sayid’s future scenes: awesome. Come on, who doesn’t want to see Sayid go all Jason Bourne, jet-setting around the globe and assassinating mysterious targets, international super-spy style. Just wicked cool. That scene on the golf course totally blew my mind the first time around.

Interesting, is it not, that Kate used the phrase “playing house” to describe shacking up with Sawyer in one of the Barracks houses. This is the same phrase Juliet later used to describe her living arrangements with Sawyer when they are in 1977 in the Dharma Initiative.

In retrospect, Locke just becomes more and more of a sad, misguided character. Watching him take charge in this episode, determined to protect his charges at all cost from the invading Freighter Folk, I was reminded that once again, he was being duped the whole time. Ben had convinced him — along with some help from “Walt,” who may or may not have been another avatar of Jacob’s nemesis — that the people coming to the island were coming to kill them all. And while it’s true that Keamy and his men would later prove to be willing to mow down anyone who got between them and Ben, they weren’t actually there to target the survivors. Locke was once again acting on his faith in what he believes to be the island and/or Jacob, but which more and more appears to be Jacob’s nemesis, manipulating Locke all the way to his bitter end.